Kefir

There are two kinds of kefir, milk kefir and water kefir. Here I am addressing milk kefir only.

Milk Kefir is fermented milk. It is similar to the more known 'yogurt'. It is thicker than milk but thinner than yogurt. Tastes sour like yogurt. Has many more different strains of bacterias, 30 to 56 for kefir as opposed to 7 to 10 for yogurt; a lot more pro-biotic power.
It is an excellent source of B vitamins, K and biotin.

Milk kefir is made by adding milk kefir grain to milk, and let it sit for 24 hours in room temperature. It is as simple as that. For me this is the easiest fermented food to make.

Here is how I make my milk kefir.

Ingredients:
 1. Milk
 2. Milk kefir grain (looks like cottage cheese).

The kefir is separated from the grain by running through a sieve.

Steps:
1. Put milk kefir grain, about 2 tea spoons, in a glass jar.
2. Pour 1 L of milk over it.
3. Put lid over the jar loosely (allow air to escape) and leave it out at room temperature for 24 hours.
4. Separate the grain from the milk kefir by pouring them over a sieve.
5. Bottled the finish kefir and store in the fridge.
6. The grain is ready to be used for the next batch. It is that easy.

 Notes:
Milk kefir grain is a living organism. It grows and multiplies. Heat will kill it.
To get the most benefit from consuming kefir - never heat it.

Milk kefir grain can be stored with milk in the fridge for more than 2 weeks.

Any type of milk can be used. I have tried 2% and raw organic whole milk, they both work. The grain multiplies and grows faster in the raw organic whole milk.

Milk kefir is lactose free; the lactose is converted to lactic acid during fermentation, and lactic acid is very soothing to the gut. I am lactose intolerant, but I have no issues with consuming milk kefir.

If you are new to kefir, start slowly; drink no more than 4 oz the first few days. Back off, take a couple days off if you have some issues (like bloating etc.) and start again.

If you get hives, you maybe allergic to histamine. Kefir, kombucha and sauerhraut are high histamine foods. If so you should avoid fermented food and take pro-biotic supplements instead.

More info on kefir : Click here.

Kombucha

Kombucha is fermented tea. It is made from tea with sugar and fermented by adding SCOBY (Symbiotic Colony Of Bacteria and Yeast).
It tastes great (not for everybody) and it is pro-biotic, which means that it is good for your health. I love it and drink a bit every day.

Here is how I make my Kombucha drink. I use a 1 gallon (3.6 L) glass container.

3L of filtered water, 1 cup sugar, 7 tea bags.

Ingredients:
 - 3 L of filtered water (room temperature in a 1 gallon glass jar)
 - 7 tea bags (I use green tea, sometime mixed with red tea)
 - 1 cup sugar
 - 1 cup kombucha
 - Scoby

One cup of kombucha and scoby (from previous batch) to be added to the new sweet tea.

Steps:
1. Boil part of the 3 L filtered water (about 1 L), steep the tea bags in it for 10 to 15 minutes.
2. Add 1 cup of sugar to the hot tea, and stir until all the sugar dissolved.
3. Put this sweet tea liquid back in the glass jar to make 3 L of tea, and stir.
4. Let this 3 L of sweet tea cool down to room temperature (about 3 hours or more).
5. Add 1 cup of kombucha and stir.
6. Add the Scoby.
7. Cover the glass jar with a tight woven cloth and leave at room temperature for 10 to 15 days.
8. After 10 days taste if it is done the way you like it, and prepare for the next batch.
9. Bottled the finish product (filtered with fine plastic filter) and let it sit (tightly cap) for another 2 days at room temperature before storing it in the fridge.

The kombucha left some residue (from scoby).

Notes:

Use filtered water to avoid chlorine, fluoride and other contaminants that are not good for the bacterias.

Heat may kill the scoby, so make sure that the tea is cooled to room temperature before adding the scoby and one cup of kombucha into it. The scoby is alive and grows if well fed and taken care of, so treat it as a pet.

Initially you need a starter scoby and one cup of kombucha. For the next batch, you use (move) the scoby from the first batch. As the scoby multiplies you can make more batches or share with others.

Green tea is my favourite, but sometimes I mix one red tea bag with 6 green tea bags.

White sugar, palm sugar, demera cane sugar etc are all fine to use. They all give good results. Just different taste.

Use a tightly woven cloth to cover the glass jar during fermentation to prevent fruit flies entering, but still allows air to move. Use a fresh/clean cloth for the next batch, do not use the same cloth from the previous batch as it may have fruit fly eggs on it.

Some tiny scoby or tea leaves may be floating around in the finish product, so it is best to filter the kombucha into bottles. 

Leaving the finished kombucha in tightly cap bottles out in room temperature for another 2 days before putting in the fridge, will make it 'fizzy', as it continues to ferment. 

Kombucha as other fermented food has lots of good bacterias, but it also has a special yeast that can not be killed by antibiotics. It is Saccharomyces boulardii. This special yeast is abundant in kombucha and it is now use to treat serious diarrhea and other gastrointestinal disorders.

If you are going away for an extended vacation, you can store the scoby immersed in sweet tea inside the fridge for several weeks.



Please leave comments or questions, below. Hope you find it useful.

Manatee

Saturday morning, January 17, we decided to go see Manatees at Apollo Beach, Florida.
On our way to Clearwater, we learned from the Florida Welcome Center on I-75, of locations to see these unusual animal. Apollo Beach (Tampa Bay) Manatee viewing center was the nearest to our place. It was a cool and beautiful sunny day.

There are several Manatee species. The Florida Manatees are native to Florida.
I found the Manatees to be unusual because they are mammals but live in water. They have lungs and breathe air just like other mammals. Genetically their close 'cousin' is the Elephants.
They can hold their breath, under water, up to 20 minutes before coming to the surface for air.
The Florida Manatee has a large tube shape body, a flat paddle shaped tail and two short flippers. Adult manatee average 10 feet long and weighs around 1200 lbs. They could live for 60 years or more. At birth calf (baby manatee) ranges from 3 to 4 feet long and weigh 60 to 75 lbs.

Like Elephants, Manatees are herbivorous. They eat sea grasses and other aquatic plants. Their teeth are molars only. I was told at the learning center that throughout their life new rear molar keep growing, pushing off and replacing the front molar. Amazing.

Theresia with a 'baby manatee'.

Florida Manatees like warm water; they can not stand water temperatures below 68 F for long extended time. During the winter, warm water discharge from Tampa Electric power plant provide refuge for the manatees in the water around the power plant. So the best time to view the manatees here, is during the cold winter months. We saw over one hundred manatees.

Power plant

If you like nature and like to learn more about manatees, I highly recommend that you visit this place. It is about 45 minutes drive from Cearwater.
Here is a link to the Tampa Electric's Manatee Viewing Center. Admission is free.

Around lake Erie - day 11, last day.

Day 11, Wednesday August 27 2014.

From Brantford to Brampton - 103.3 km

Day-11 route

Started early, about 7:00 AM. I wanted to cover as much distance as possible before the heat of the sun got to me. Managed to get out of the city without too many difficulties.

At 18.4 km, the cue sheet direction was to make a left turn to Kitchens Trail, but the trail was closed. Apparently for quite some time judging from the size of bushes and trees that had grown on the path. The gps software needed updating.

I decided to continue East until the next intersection then turn left, North, and back to the planned route.

The road must had been closed for some tine............

The next intersection was hwy.#52, made a left and headed North. Unfortunately this was a very busy highway with many trucks traffic. So at the next intersection which was Governors Road, I turn right and headed East again. Close to 10 km later I was in the city of Dundas. Stopped for coffee at Tim Horton's and used their free WiFi to study the route on my Nexus7 tablet. The map showed that if I cycled through downtown Dundas King Street, going North West, it will connect to Brock Rd. which in turn, at the 50 km, joined the planned route. Great!

Extra protected from the sun rays......it was a hot day.

After coffee break, I put on more sun screen and extra protection, bandanna, over my head. The sun rays were hot. Cycling North West on King St. W. and Brock Rd. was tough, as it was a long, felt like 5 km long, winding, steep uphill. Stopped and rested once. It was definitely one of the toughest hill I cycled on.

Another llama farm?

Saw another llama farm. Raising llamas seemed popular in this area.

The sky was clear and the sun rays hot; needed frequent breaks and cooling off in the shade.

Took a break near the 401 and Cambellville Rd intersection. Was planning to have a couple of oranges and a boiled egg for lunch, but could not find where I had stored them, must have left them at the hotel. Instead I just ate a couple power bars. My brain was a little fuzzy.

The wind picked up, it was mostly coming from the North. By this time I was cycling to the East, so it did not bother me much. It brought some clouds. I took off the bandanna that was covering my neck and ears from the sun.
Near Milton, road signs indicating that #5 side road was closed to traffic, reminded me of my day-1 on the tour. This was the same one. It was Wednesday around 3:00 PM, hoped the workers would let me through.
Did not see anybody working at the closure. The construction of the Bridge had some progress compared to 10 days ago. Carefully walked Shadow pass the barriers. Lucky.

Arrived home...........end of tour.

The 2 km stretch on Mississauga Rd. going North was likely the most challenging ride of the day. It was hilly and much worst, strong wind in my face. Moved slowly.........6 to 7 km per hour, snail pace.

Home with Theresia and Edward.

Cycled mostly on the sidewalk along Williams Parkway; arrived home 4:33 PM. Theresia was anxiously waiting for me in the front yard. Edward cycled to meet me but we crossed paths.

With Hoey and Ed.

Hoey came over to welcome me home. Had a cold beer and started thinking 'What is next????'
End.

Around lake Erie - Day 10

Day 10, Tuesday August 26 2014.

From St. Thomas to Brantford, ON - 115 km.

Day 10 planned route.

Started early, the Sun was still low on the horizon. The road had nice shoulder to cycle on. Some clouds but no rain fore casted. A good start.
A few km later the first gravelled dirt road 'appeared', but it was a short one. However, soon more and more gravelled dirt road for longer distances. Not a good sign.

Sun, still low on the horizon.

Surprised to see some baby llamas on a small farm. They were cute and curious of me as I was of them.

Baby llamas.

More gravelled dirt road with some hills ahead, not good. May not reached today's destination before dark.

Will it end?

Was I seeing things? Did I see paved road ahead or was it just a mirage? It turned out that it was just a small patch of asphalt across a small bridge. Bummer!

Paved road ahead?

Heard a horse galloping behind me. On this dirt road the horse pulling a carriage was faster than my cycling. It stopped behind me and I took a picture of it. Apparently I was cycling through the Amish community. On my right side I saw women and children sitting around some tables in the yard under a huge tree, working. They were wearing their traditional clothes. Asked if I could take a picture of them, they refused.

Horse buggy.

Many working horses in this area. A couple friendly ones galloped towards me as I cycled by.

Friendly horses.

After crossing a paved road onto another dirt road, I stopped and took a break. By this time, I had cycled 45 km mostly on gravelled dirt road. I had enough of it, my forearms and shoulders were sore from slipping, skidding and bouncing of gravel for the last two days. Studied the map on my tablet and saw rte. 18, which continued on to rte.3, parallel for about 40 km to this dirt road that I was cycling on. It was only about 2 km south. Without hesitation I turned around and took this alternate route. It was the best decision I made this day. For the next 45 km I cycled on nice paved road with good shoulder; what a bliss.
Stopped in Norwich for lunch and had a cold beer, the day was hot. The beer tasted especially good.

Peaceful resting place.

Took a break and rested at another 'final resting place'; always a good place to rest. Re- applied my sunscreen. The sun was hot, I needed many short breaks in the shade to cool off.

At the end of rte. 3, I cycled North, back to the planned route. After a short ride on dirt road, I turned left onto a nice wide paved trail. Cycled on this trail for the next 11 km. A local guy I met on the trail told me that this trail started from Cambridge on the North side and extended to Port Dover on the South side - very nice.

Cycling the last 10 km through the city of Brantford was not easy.
Ingrid at the front desk of the Days Inn in Brantford was very helpful, she assisted me with my loaded bicycle as I stumbled and was not able to think straight, perhaps due to the heat of the day.

Theresia, Edward and Elaine came to visit. I just finished showering when they showed up. We had supper at William's, next door to the hotel. That was nice of them. I had a visit on my first day and now another visit on my last day - nice symmetry. That reminded me of my last year ride around lake Ontario - I had lunch with an old friend on my first day and also lunch with another friend on my last day of the tour. Amazing.

It was a hot and interesting day. Tomorrow would be my last day on this tour. A little sad but also exited of the prospect of sleeping in my own bed again. End.

Around lake Erie - Day 9

Day 9, Monday August 25 2015.

From Blenheim to St. Thomas - 95 km.

Day 9 and Day 10 cycling route.

Had a good night sleep. The weather was on the warm side, still nice for cycling.
Each day on this cycling tour a different challenge presented itself. This day, right after the first turn, I was faced with gravel covered dirt road. It continued for miles and miles. Very tough and uncomfortable to cycle on.

Fruit stand along the way.

About midday along the way, I saw a fruit stand on side of the road. Asked if I could purchased just a couple of fruits. Ended up buying one apple, two peaches and two plums for $1.00. Chatted with the owner; it turned out that he was once a manager of a Dominion store in Brampton before he retired and moved to this area.

Narrow dirt trail.

The planned route took me to a very narrow trail. According to the cue sheet this trail was 14.5 km long. After about 1 km on this trail I stopped and assessed the situation. The trail had deep puddles here and there, at some places it was impossible to cycle without brushing my arms or legs on the bushes. Also insects, one went behind my glasses and another went through my helmet and bit me on the head, others bit me on my arms and legs. I considered these as safety hazards. So, I turned around, and used an alternate route that took me 7 km further and on a paved and slightly busy road.

Resting at a "Resting Place".

Did not see any restaurant or fast food for lunch. Consumed the fruits and power bar as my lunch and had a rest at a final resting place - peaceful -:).
The wind was not that big of an issue today, I was cycling slowly on mostly dirt road anyway.

Shadow, taking a shower.

The Cardinal Court Motel, at the outskirt of St. Thomas, was a nice quiet motel, the room spacious but the furniture arrangement a bit confusing. The lady proprietor was from Brampton. Her family used to live at Millford Crescent, not too far from our house. Another ex Bramptonian.
Had to go close to the motel office to get good WiFi connection, in my room the signal was very weak. Gave Shadow a shower, washed, dried and oiled the chains. She went through puddles and dirt road, got very dirty.
Ordered in food, Greek salad and chicken wings, from Pizza Pizza; no restaurants nearby.

Today's ride was rather boring and challenging. Tomorrow's planned route to Brantford called for a 110 km distance, usually I ended up doing about 5 to 10 km more. If I could, I will start earlier. End.

Around lake Erie - Day 8

Day 8 - Sunday August 24 2014.

From Pelee island to Blenheim, ON - 82 km.

Day-8 route

Manage a few hours of sleep. Had my instant oatmeal and salted boiled egg for breakfast. Paid my bill and said good bye to Mustaq. Wished him all the best with his project, and said that I would like to come back when his project "living of the grid" was completed.

Mustaq Ahmed, the proprietor.

Passed a small church on my way to the ferry terminal. Only one mass, 12:00 noon, on Sunday. Stopped, took picture and prayed a bit.

Small RC church - Sunday mass at noon,

Arrived on time at the ferry terminal, as they just started boarding. The ferry ride to Kingsville took about 1 3/4 hours long. Spent my time on the ferry studying cue sheets and map of todays ride.
More passengers on this ride to Kingsville then yesterday's ride from Sandusky. A number of Mexican migrant workers were on board; it was Sunday, must be their day off.
A local guy gave me directions to Tim Horton's near the terminal in Kingsville; I needed a good WiFi connection and could use some morning coffee.

Boarding the M V Pelee Islander to Kingsville.

Found Timmy, had my morning coffee but could not get the WiFi connection working. my brain was fuzzy. No WiFi, no phone; not good. Throughout the tour I communicated with Theresia several times a day; in the morning before I started my ride, at noon when I stopped for lunch and in the evening as soon as I checked in the hotel and just before going to bed. Without phone and WiFi, I felt isolated. There must be a problem with my Petro cell phone account, as I was denied service and told to call customer service (?).

Today's route was simple, it did not go through large city, so I should not have problem finding my way to my next destination.

Ben and his wife Nancy greeted me as I was taking a break and checking the cue sheets. They were cycling on a tandem. Ben had cycled across Canada with three others to raise funds for ALS. They managed to raise over $45K; that was awesome. Good job, Ben.

With Ben.

I followed Ben and Nancy for a while to Leamington, then I stopped for lunch at Subway and they continued with their ride.
Also met a group of students from Toronto with their fully loaded bicycles, they were headed the other directions and this was their second day on the road. One of the girls grew up in Brampton.

Pumping oil in Ontario?

Could not believe my eyes when I saw an oil pumping machine actively working in the middle of a field. Oil in Ontario? 

It was very windy today, and you guess it, it was in my face! This was not fair. I was cycling against the wind on the other side of the lake, it should be behind me now that I was cycling back towards Brampton.

As I struggled against the wind, a couple caught up to me on their road bikes, we chatted a bit. They were from Quebec and travelled really light. They only had one bag each on their light duty rear racks and carried only one water bottle each. Were they just on one day cycling trip?

Stopped at a Petro Canada gas station in Blenheim and tried to resolve my cell phone issue; the store clerk was helpful, but no luck.

Arrived at Silver Motel exhausted from cycling against strong wind almost the entire day. The motel had decent WiFi, talked to Theresia using Skype. Lydia and John, the motel managers, were friendly and helpful. With Edward's assistance, my cell phone issue was resolved.

The room was very small, but nice, clean, comfortable and quiet.
Today's ride was not far but it was difficult cycling against strong wind. In the end, I had a good day, met interesting people, my cell phone issue resolved and a nice place to rest. End.